Dr. Kiran Patel’s $60 million investment in Concept Medical Inc

Indian American Cardiologist and entrepreneur Dr. Kiran Patel has invested $60 million in a medical device company whose headquarters will move from Miami to Tampa.

The investment in Concept Medical Inc. will pay for clinical studies on cardiac devices coated with a substance that reduces the risk of heart blockages and the length of time a patient needs to take blood thinners.

“Cardiovascular diseases are the No. 1 cause of death globally, representing 31 percent of all global deaths, and it is increasing due to changes in lifestyle and the increase in hypertension amongst the young and old,” Patel said in a release. “This venture enables me to contribute to the millions of hearts beating around the world.”

Concept Medical and its manufacturing subsidiary in India have developed new technologies in which stents and balloons used to open blocked coronary arteries are coated with Sirolimus, a substance that reduces the risk of rejection.

With conventional stent or balloon treatments, the risk of restenosis — renarrowing of the arteries — “is 8 to 10 percent,” Patel said in a phone interview. “Ours can bring it down to 3 percent. We will also be able to decrease the need to take blood thinners.”

Concept Medical already sells the Sirolimus-coated devices in Europe and parts of Asia but they cannot be sold in the United States without costly testing required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The $60 million “will be primarily to ensure we can get the FDA approvals and further studies in Europe to establish the requirements,” Patel said.

The Indian subsidiary will continue to produce the devices, but Concept Medical’s headquarters and about five employees will move to Tampa, where Patel lives. The most significant employment gains, though, will be from the clinical studies to assess the safety and effectiveness of the devices, Patel said.

“The places where we will be executing the animal studies (and) the human studies will be at renowned institutions throughout the country,” he said. “They are just launching.”

Patel helped transform a struggling New York health maintenance organization and merged it with a Florida HMO to form WellCare Management Group, which he sold in 2002 for a reported $200 million. Until recently, he was chairman and president of Tampa-based Freedom Health and Optimum Healthcare, which he also sold. Patel is also among the investors in the Tampa Bay Times.

Born in Zambia to Asian-Indian parents, educated in India, Dr. Kiran Patel arrived in the United States Thanksgiving Day, 1976. He returned home to attend medical school, where he met his wife, Pallavi, a fellow student, but ultimately decided to return to the U.S. permanently. “I wanted to make sure my children had a better future, and the political climate in Africa at the time was a bit challenging,” he says.

Dr. Patel was educated in Zambia and then got his diploma in Cambridge University and The University of London. He came down to India to study medicine in Gujarat University in India and did his Internship in Africa. Dr. Patel did his residency in Internal Medicine in New Jersey in 1980. He completed a fellowship in the Cardiology program affiliated with the Columbia University of New York in 1982.

Dr. Pallavi Patel did her undergraduate degree from M.G. Science College, Gujarat University, and attended Municipal Medical College of Gujarat University in Ahmedabad. She did her internship from St. Barnabas Hospital in New Jersey, School of Medicine Dentistry of New Jersey and Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey, in affiliation with Columbia University in New York. She started her private practice in Kabwe, Zambia, from 1974 to 1978 and worked as a part-time consultant physician from 1974 to 1978 for Kabwe Industrial Fabrics, Ltd. and Kapiri Glass Products, Ltd.

The Patel family moved to Tampa, Florida in 1982 and Dr. Kiran Patel began his practice in Cardiology. His dedication, compassion, and skills made him very successful at the very early stage of medical practice, and was soon a distinguished cardiologist in that area. He developed a physician practice management company and expanded to places adjoining Tampa Bay area diverging into 14 practices including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Cardiology.

Dr. Patel was also in partnership with several point-of-service locations to form multi-specialty networks. This network helped patients to access most medical services conveniently. He has actively engaged himself in managed care contracts and has expanded so much that it provides care for more than 80,000 patients annually. Apart from this, he has developed good associations with several HMOs and hospitals. His success in managed care contracts led a group of doctors to seek his services to help them with an HMO in New Port Richey, Florida.

Dr. Patel’s investment will pay for clinical studies on cardiac devices coated with a substance that reduces the risk of heart blockages and the length of time a patient needs to take blood thinners.

“Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number 1 cause of death globally, representing 31% of all global death and it is increasing due to changes in lifestyle and increase in hypertension amongst the young and old,” Patel, a cardiologist and serial entrepreneur, is quoted saying in a press release. “I am excited to be a part of CMI whose research & innovative technologies will meet a major unmet need in patients with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This venture enables me to contribute to the millions of hearts beating around the world.”

The investment “will be primarily to ensure we can get the FDA approvals and further studies in Europe to establish the requirements,” Patel added. A portion of the funds will also be utilized to bolster the manufacturing operations to meet the increasing demand for their products globally.

Both companies were established about 10 years ago and have developed innovative and disruptive platform technologies in drug-delivery systems to address the unmet medical needs in interventional cardiology.

“We want to make a world of difference to the way medical devices companies operate globally. We are a young organization and innovation runs in the soul of our entire organization. This investment enables us in advancing our innovation platforms vigorously. Besides the investment, Dr. K brings a serious value-add with his vast experience which is synergistic,” Manish Doshi, founder and managing director of the company, is quoted saying in a press release.